Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been demonstrated to be effective platforms for performing missions requiring long endurance flight and operating in areas that may be too dangerous for human-operated AVs. As the role of UAVs expands, from remotely controlled to semi-autonomous and autonomous operations, challenges are presented that require the development and application of intelligent systems. These systems must be capable of making reliable decisions under varying conditions. As a result, a UAV system must incorporate aspects of the experience, reasoning and learning abilities of a pilot. A high level of autonomy is desired for future unmanned combat systems because lethality and survivability can be improved with much less communications bandwidth than is required for preprogrammed or remotely operated systems.
What is needed is an autonomous aircraft control system that (1) senses a present configuration of the subject aircraft and one or more other aircraft in the neighborhood (referred to collectively as “intruder aircraft,”) (2) quickly examines a plurality of response scenarios; (3) identifies at least one optimal response scenario, depending upon whether the intruder aircraft is non-friendly (a suitable firing position sought) or is friendly (avoidance is pursued); and (4) promptly implements the optimal response scenario.